Disastrous year for Tenerife wines

One of the worst years ever, with some producers declaring a wipe out.

2007's sorry looking shriveled grapesThe grapes here will probably be harvested in the next week or so, if there's anything left worth picking.

Some 400,000 Euros (£270,000) of vines were burnt by the fire at the end of July in just this region of Ycoden Daute Isora alone. To that must be added the production losses in the forthcoming three years and the cost of replanting them, which summed, doubles that amount.

This may not sound particularly disastrous to those of you who live in cities where milk comes from cartons and wine from ~~European wine lakes~~ bottles, but to a small producer here in Tenerife, it certainly is a catastrophe.

Vines Vintage 2005Fortunately, the sorry looking grapes in the backyard here are grown only for "home consumption" and not commercially (usually enough to make 200 liters, mind you), but it's still sad to see lots of hard work being turned into, well, not a lot.

As well as the damage done by the fire, the heatwave during that last week in July, combined with the lack of decent weather for the rest of the summer, brought fungal problems and decimated the rest of the crop.

Even a non-expert like me can see the huge difference between the grapes this year and the healthy looking ones from previous years and, growers are reporting harvests of half or a third of their usual quantities.

The Island Corporation are promising to analyse the situation, but that small growers are asking for "mechanisms that allows them to insure" for these losses, confirms that there is no such help available at present.

In this video, Canarias24horas visit vineyards in the Tacoronte-Acentejo region, where they say that the heatwave and the lack of sun the rest of the year has "mortally wounded" this year's harvest. See for yourself.

Las pérdidas en Ycoden Daute Isora ascienden a 400.000 Euros